Hit Pick

Primitive cultures used the drum to communicate with neighboring villages, among other things.The Motet, which performs Friday, September 7, at the Boulder Theater with Being Lara Maykovich, uses drums and percussion as the foundation of its culture-colliding sound. Employing rhythmic patterns that echo Pan-American, Cuban and African music alongside groovy electric guitars and jazz-inflected organs, the Motet creates its own shape-shifting brand of world music. On Play, its most recent release, the Motet combines the soulster grooves of Curtis Mayfield and James Brown with the celebratory, spiritually suggestive stylings of artists like Fela Kuti. It's a mishmash, all right, but one that never veers out of control: Drummer Dave Watts, vocalist Jans Ingber and the other Mo-men are too focused on the movements of the jam to let it get away from them. The Motet's primary goal seems to be to induce listeners to dance; along the way, fans are likely to find themselves shaking their stuff to a beat they don't recognize from the Western canon.